June 19, 2012

Life Time Experience!!!

After our sardonic companionship with the Chipmunk and a brief sweet sojourn with my college friend at Singapore, we finally arrived at the HYD Intl airport. My family was eagerly waiting at the entrance to embrace the little one as it was her first visit to India. I couldn’t wait to rush out of the flight and were done with the immigration officers pretty quickly. So far, this is common for all of you right? What’s not common is to follow.

After we pick up the luggage and are almost near the exit, our carry on was scanned by the customs. As I was travelling with the baby and had to open my backpack multiple times during the trip, I packed all my jewelry and gold coins in the carry on for safety. The officers (I hate to call them by that word) asked me to step aside. I knew I was their prey for the day. So, one of them asks me: “Madam, are you bringing any gold with you?” I say: “Yes”. I don’t recollect the exact sequence of the conversation but this is how it went. Customs: “You need to pay tax.” I said: “I thought NRIs could carry how much ever gold they want right (I knew there was a limit upto 10 kgs). I added, I purchased them with my tax paid money (rather hard earned money, Only I know how many things I sacrificed in the process of saving) and I have bills for all of them. But I was totally mistaken. I was not aware of the fact that we’ve to pay WAT or declare the gold, keep it with them and collect on the day of leaving back to US. Hmm..I could do that. But, all these years I saved to get some beautiful jewels done for my sister’s wedding.

Had I been inordinately humble and made a pitiful face and cry: “Sir, please sir, I don’t know sir, leave me sir, I am with a baby sir, I need to go sir, or Sir, pls sir, pls take this $100 and let me go sir”; may be they would have had some kind of sympathy on me. But. But, I’m not the kind who would just let things go. I’m one of those pigheaded creatures who despise bribe. There was nothing like ‘talking’ with those idiots. It’s either fighting or surrendering.

There was this b….with dark rimmed glasses and a thick moustache who kept grunting at me looking at the other officials: “What do you think? You are dealing with Govt. You could go to jail”. He kept repeating it. While reading Bikram's Post, I recollected something. I didn't want to slap that guy. Wanted to spit on his face. What the heck? Put me in jail? Whoa..They didn’t even let me hand over my baby to the family for a while. It was 1:00 AM at night. One of them, (I think he has a bit of humanity in him) let me go & drop the baby outside.

The episode was never ending. When I was not willing to bribe them, I should pay the tax right? Nah..I was trying to pull the strings from my end by calling the other customs personnel who our family knew. Unfortunately, all of them were either not on duty or just got off the duty.

There came this time when I had to show them my coins to weigh. Looked like they didn’t pay attention to how many I was carrying, as they already knew they weren’t going to get their fodder from me. I had them in two packs. As Mr. Baldy went to weigh one, I put the other inside in a jiffy. Had I not done that, I would have paid them a six digit amount. It took them an eternity to get the bill. Meanwhile, I start a conversation with the baldy and said: “Okay, let me know how much you want and let me go”. He says: “No, not now. Not now. Not after coming this far”. Sigh!! I curse myself for my idiosyncrasy. There he is finally with the receipt & sends me to the counter to pay the tax.

I gathered all the cards my family holds and withdrew money from different ATMs. The guy at the bank counter bears this sympathetic face for my fortune and says: “I cannot take INR. It has to be in US $$. Please go and get $$ from the only surviving currency exchange outside. The exchange people informed that they can give me $$ only if I am flying abroad and need my itinerary. I express my helplessness and somehow the bank person collected the fee. I was literally crying. I am supposed to be self-content right? Then, Why am I crying?

On the last step, while I gave the receipt and was waiting to pick my gold, the baldy says: “Next time, see, if you deal with it initially itself, then you won’t have to go through all this”. I replied: “ I know that. I know that’s how my husband or any sensible person would have dealt it. But now, I don’t have any guilt. I’m proud of what I have done.” And offer him a thanks (for the lifetime experience) and run sobbing to hug my family after 3 hours of agony.

I still don’t feel satisfied that I paid the Govt. I could have used that money to donate to multiple organizations. That’s what has been bugging me. I am paying for no reason. Well, they had a reason.Btw, ladies and gentlemen, pls melt the gold coins into a bangle before carrying it or have it in your personal hand bag, not the carry on or mix them with a bunch of Indian coins. That way, when they scan everything is shown as metal and not as gold. (Well, a jeweler gave me this idea :) )p.s: I just recollected this. I always had a secret desire to fight with the customs and wished it aloud many times. They say, thadaasthu devatas will listen. And they did listen and made my dream come true.

Now who will save the Indians from tbe Indians? I guess we should all take a printout of Bikram's post and always carry it with us. A few days back I read a Facebook update doing the rounds which warned how custom officis are slyly tearing away the pages from the passports of and creating red alerts for the unsuspecting victims who end up paying tbrough their noses to get it settled quickly!

USP, I too read about that warning message. Not sure how far it's true, but I informed everyone I knew who's traveling to and from India. And still keep doing that. Just for talking, he wants to put me in jail, if we implement Bikram's post, I think, we gone for life.

I have a lot of stories to tell, will do one by one.. I dont know why they do that they have a good job and earn handsome salaries still the greed is there.. I dont mind paying what is right but this and that .. I once spilled two bottles of SCOTCH right there in front of them as I would not give it to them ..

I have been to a lot of other countries NEVER ever have i faced humiliation , i face it when i come to my own country .. I rmemeber i wrote a post once and i was told the reason why foreigners are welcomes is because of athithi bhavo something MY FOOT...

If you land in UK.. give me a CALL or let me know , You wont have a problem I am telling you know :) if all is legal Promise.

I wish they were SCOTCH bottles too..:) Unfortunately, sona hai..bahut mehenga hai..can't trash them..;) Just kidding.Things like this have made me hate my country. And I feel pathetic for that. I'll give you a call for sure, but why? It's UK. Do they ask bribe there also? :P

First of all, sorry for that. I should have paid more attention to that. After Saru Sanghal repeatedly kept telling me, I was able to change my profile.Thank you so much for sparing your time in searching it and wanting to read it. I feel blessed...:)Yes, you can be very good friends with me...:) you know, after coming back, my husb jokingly said, "the gold rate has gone down, do you want to buy some?" I said, no, never. As soon as I landed in India, there was this strike going on and had to compromise on what I made..:( Exactly, that's what I felt too...putting the money into politicians' pockets...anyway, I want to think less about it, as it hurts a lot...;)

Pretty sad that a few avaricious guys bring bad name to the entire country.But this menace has spread widely in every walk of life where government is involved.The fight to eliminate this scourge is sporadic by a few activists and smothered by vested interests.One should not grudge paying to government what is due and not a dime more.How many are so righteous as you were in paying the dues and not succumbing to the easier and profitable option? Hats off to you!!kpartha12@gmail.com

Thank you so much. I know it's a proud moment, but I underwent a lot of agony during the whole episode. When the guy said, you are dealing with govt., you'll go to jail, then itself I decided, I am not going to pay a penny to this bugger. Yes, I do need some pats..haha..:) Welcome here.

It is really wonderful for sticking to your guns and doing the right thing. But I could imagine your agony and tension as you went through the ordeal. Really empathised with the statement of giving to the government. As Bhavana has said, it only ends up in the politicians' pockets, finally!